Ukraine’s Littlest Citizens Are Keeping Traditional Dress Alive

Kiev’s current fashion climate might be decidedly forward thinking, but those looking to travel back in time need only cross the Dnieper River to the city’s left bank, where the country’s traditional looks live on. The Kiev Children’s Art School No. 3 is a dance school that was founded in 1999 and is home to the Ukrainian National Youth Dance Ensemble, Rostok, where the folk attire of recitals is plucked straight from Ukrainian history. Berlin-based photographer Tasya Kudryk was one of the school’s first students and used to live only a few blocks away. “When I came to shoot, the class of girls was having a rehearsal and they were still dancing the same steps that I had danced. While I was sitting, watching them and waiting for them to finish, I felt that my back straightened,” says Kudryk, who returned to photograph the students 10 years after her graduation. “The body never forgets if a person once attended the dance classes.”

The clothes haven’t changed much either. Traditional Ukrainian clothing has always held a deep significance within the country: Even the slightest variation in embroidery can indicate origins of a specific region or town. Consider the garb that accompanies the hopak, the Ukrainian national dance historically performed by cossacks from the eastern region of Zaporizhia; while participating, male students will wear voluminous trousers called sharavary with a pair of kicky red hussar boots, while female students will wear a poltava costume that includes a kersetka, an embroidered vest with a slight peplum, a vyshyvanka top, and the flower crown with ribbon streamers called a vinok. But if they are stepping to the hutsul, a jig that originated in the Carpathian Mountains, dancers will wear a keptar, a vest made from sheepskin with wool embroidery, as well as the woven belt called a krayky. As for the most consistently popular accessory? An ear-to-ear smile.